VIA IDE Falcon Storage Device driver 2.20A

For use with the following Product/s:

VT8251 Integrated Serial ATA RAID controller ( VT8251 )
VT8237 Integrated Serial ATA RAID controller ( VT8237 VT8237 )
Discrete Serial ATA RAID controllers VT6420/1 ( VT6420 VT6421 )
VT6410 IDE RAID controller ( VT6410 )
CX700 Integrated Serial ATA RAID controller ( CX700 )
VX700 Integrated Serial ATA RAID controller ( VX700 )

The VIA IDE Falcon Storage Device driver supports eSATA and the hot-plug function with the VT8237, VT8237R and VT8251 South Bridges as well as the CX700 and VX700 single chip solutions.

For full details about this driver's function please read this information.


VIA IDE Falcon Storage Device driver

History notes: The VIA IDE Flacon Storage Device driver, when it was in Beta stage, was named the VIA IDE Accelerator Driver. With the 2.10A release (May 2007) it incorporated the PATA/SATA IDE driver as well.

Benefits: This driver supports additional functions not supported by the default Microsoft IDE driver; it also enhances device compatibility.

The VIA IDE Flacon Storage Device driver supports eSATA (External SATA) technology and control of devices connected to the SATA controller via this technology, on VIA VT8237, VT8237R and VT8251 South Bridges as well as the CX700 and VX700 single chip solutions. eSATA allows SATA drives to be externally connected to a system. Some new motherboards now feature an eSATA connector. Other motherboards can support eSATA with an eSATA HBA or bracket. eSATA is up to six times faster than USB 2.0 or 1394. eSATA is hot-pluggable (meaning that it is auto-detected, just like a USB HDD). For more information on eSATA, please read the SATA Organization's website.

This driver supports hot-plugging, where a SATA drive can be hot-plugged, detected and used much in the same way as a USB hard drive. This feature is supported under Windows 2000 and later operating systems.

Limitations: The VIA V-RAID driver is required for all systems featuring a VIA SATA controller. This driver does not support any of the RAID functions provided by VIA SATA controllers.

The IDE Falcon Storage Device driver supports:

* the SATA controllers featured in the VT8237, VT8237R, VT8237R Plus, VT8237A, VT8251 South Bridges;
* the SATA controllers featured in the VX700 and CX700 single chip solutions;
* the SATA controllers featured in the VT6421 and VT6410 discrete solutions.

eSATA is only supported with the VIA VT8237, VT8237R and VT8251 South Bridges as well as the CX700 and VX700 single chip solutions.

Operating systems supported: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP x64, Windows Server 2003 x64, Windows Vista 32 bit and Windows Vista 64 bit.

Notes for legacy operating systems: The old VIA Miniport driver v3.20 is included in this package to support the VIA VT686A/VT686B/VT8235 South Bridges under NT4.0, Windows 98SE, Windows ME. All other VIA South Bridges with legacy operating systems should use the Microsoft Default IDE driver. This driver does not supported VIA SATA controllers for Windows NT4.0, Windows 98SE, Windows ME. (This is due to a limitation in the operating system driver structure, where SATA can only be supported in native IDE mode). Users with legacy operating systems (Windows NT4.0, Windows 98SE, Windows ME ) need to set their SATA controller to RAID mode in their BIOS and then use VIA V-RAID driver package.